Dancing Through Lightning
by Acrzie
Summary: Sequel to "Dancing Through Fire"! Set in Essie and Gabe's POV! Horrible summary I know. T for possible language and violence. What happens when Essie starts high school? And it doesn't go as planned? Who are your real friends?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Esperanza has 2 main nicknames: Essie for family and Es for friends. Just saying so you don't get confused.**

"GABE! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!" I scream.

"IN MY ROOM STUPID!" He yells down.

"LANGUAGE!" My mother yells from the laundry room, where she's trying to get the bloodstains out of Gabe's armor.

"GABE ¿_Dónde diablos está tu_?" I stomp up the stairs to my brother's room.

"_En mi habitación, estúpido_" He answers.

"NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Mom yells.

I turn the knob of Gabe's bedroom door, but it's locked. Thanks to dad, I learned to pick a lock before I could toddle. Unfortunately, I have no hairpin so I do the logical thing. On all of our doors there is one 'sweet spot'. It you kick it, the door will open.

Taking a step back, I kick the door as hard as I can. Hearing the _snick _of the lock, I throw the door open. Gabe is on his bed playing an Xbox game.

"GABE!" I yell.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. One sec."

I step in front of the TV and he freaks out.

"MOVE ESSIE!"

"NOT UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHY YOU TOLD HAILEY I WAS 'MADLY IN LOVE' WITH RUSSELL!"

Gabe laughed "That was funny wasn't it?"

"NO!"

Mom stormed in "Ezperanza_! _Gabriel!What in the world is going on?!"

Gabe and I gulped, we knew we were in trouble when mom used our full names.

"Mom! Gabe told Hailey a huge lie about me!" I whine, being the stereotypical baby of the family.

"Gabriel Jacob Valdez! What on earth did you tell Hailey Grace!" Mom glares at him.

"I just told her Essie had a little crush on Russell!"

"Gabe." Mom sighs "I know you're best friends with Hailey but you can't tell her things like that! It's obvious she's going to tell her brother."

"I didn't know that!" Gabe cries out.

"YES YOU DID! THAT'S WHY YOU TOLD HER!" I scream and run out.

Let me do some back story explaining. My name is Esperanza Carmen Valdez. The obnoxious toad is my brother Gabriel Jacob. Our parents are Leo Valdez and Lucinda Valencia (now Valdez). Gabe is best friends with Kai Jackson (the product of Percy and Annabeth) and Hailey Grace (Jason and Piper). I sort of like Russell Grace, Hailey's younger brother. Great I know, what's worse is we were best friends. Well like a quartet of best friends because Cassia and Greg were also in our circle of immediate friendship.

I guess I'll take the time now to introduce the crew. There's me, Gabe, Hailey, Russell, Kai, Aria (Kai's sister), Lily and Cassia (Travis and Katie's twin girls), Greg and Matt (Clarisse and Chris's twin boys), Molly (daughter of Nico and Rachel, she had gotten permission from Apollo, apparently the 'eternal maiden' was just so Apollo would have a fallback girl…), Fiona (Wendy and a son of Apollo) and last but not least, Joe (Connor and Lou). We're all basically the same age, the oldest being Gabe (16) and the youngest being Aria (13).

Back to the matter at hand. I grabbed my jacket and headed out the door.

"BYE MOM! I'M GOING TO CASS'S!" I yell.

"Be home by 6! Your father will be home and we need to discuss you and Gabe's behavior." She appeared from the laundry room.

"_Mami!_ I didn't do anything!" I complain.

"We still need to talk." She kisses me on the top of the head.

I run to Cassia and Lily's, they live right next door so it's not really a problem. Since we all train, live, eat, sleep, fight, bleed etc. together, our group doesn't really have any boundaries as far as appearing in each other's homes is concerned. And our parents don't seem to have a problem, they probably did the same when they were our age.

I hop the fence between our houses and see Cassia sitting on the steps of her back porch.

"Cass!" I wave.

"Hey Essie!" She smiles. "Pop a squat." She patted the wood step.

"Thanks." I sit and see she had a flower in her hands.

"You found that tulip thing?"

"Yep!" She smiles.

"That's so cool!"

"I know! Wait… what's wrong?"

"Huh? Nothing!"

"Yes there is! You never want to talk about plants!"

"Gabe told Hailey and she told Russell." I look away.

"HE DIDN'T!" Her eyes get huge.

"He did."

She curses in Ancient Greek. "Come on let's go to the park."

When Chiron and everyone made the houses for old campers to live in, they also made a park in the middle. Half of it is a regular park and the other half is a huge training ground.

Cass and I decide to go to the park and are on the swings when we see, lo and behold, Russell with his 6 year old sister Marvi.

"Crap." I look away.

"Es, it's not that bad!"

"Is too!"

"Hey Cass! Hey Essie!" Russell looks over at us.

"Hey Russell! Hi Marvi!" I smile and almost melt. See when Jason was a teen he was attractive and so was Piper. So obviously their offspring will be amazingly attractive. Attractive doesn't even begin to describe Russell. He has dark brown hair that he keeps in a buzz cut and piercing blue eyes. He's tan and training since he was 8 made him strong and toned in all the right places. The best part? He wasn't a jerk. Most hot guys are jerks. Not Russell.

"Hey Rus." Cassia waved. "Hi Marvi!"

"What's up ladies?" Russell smiles.

"Relaxing before school starts." I stick my tongue out and they laugh. We had been training all summer, but training ended last week. To top it off we started school in three days.

"I do not want to start high school." Cassia was nervous.

"Come on Cass you'll do fine!"

"Not as good as Kai or like…"

"Kai still has dyslexia! Even if she's a grandkid of Athena!"

"Still…"

"Ugh stop second guessing! You did great in 8th grade and we have every class together!" I nudge her with my hip.

Russell's eyes light up "You have every class with Cassia?"

"Yes why?"

"I have every class with Cassia!"

I smile and then look at my watch. _6:30. _

"CRAP! I gotta go! Bye Cass. Bye Russell! Bye Marvi!"

I sprint home and burst through the door.

"_Llegas tarde_." My mom barely looks up from her plate.

"_Sé que" _I say as I hang my jacket up_ "_Gosh is this the Hispanic Mafia." I mumble and sit down at my seat.

"No. We're a Demigod drug cartel." My dad smiles and laughs at his own joke.

"Leo." Mom looks over at him with her '_That was so lame'_ look that was specially reserved for dad.

"Come on _Lucita._"

"Ok enough. We need to discuss Gabe and Essie's behavior." My mom glares at him.

"They messed up. Take Gabe's Xbox away, don't let Essie go to dance class this week. Problem solved." Dad takes another spoonful of mashed potatoes.

"WHAT!? WHY?!" I ask. "I didn't do anything!"

"We're not just talking about this one incident. You two have fought too much." Mom looks up at me.

"Mom please? You can't _not _let me go to dance class!"

"We can actually."

"That's so not fair!" I push my chair out to leave.

"Esperanza it was my idea. Now sit down." Dad gives me a look saying _'You better sit down Missy'._

"I'm going to the training area." I grab my jacket and leave. Now every demigod has a 'magic item'. Mine was a hairclip that turned into a bow and arrows. I stomped to the other half of the park and found the archery field. I pulled my clip out, ripping out several strands of my hair in the process.

I pulled back and fired an arrow, it hit the target but was an inch or two away from the bullseye. I fired three more, each with the same result.

"Calm down Valdez." I turned to see Molly Di Angelo.

"Hey Molly."

"Hi."

"What's up?"

"You're going to have a crappy time in high school." She picked at her fingernails.

"Thanks Captain Sunshine. How do you know?"

"Oracle mom. Duh." She rolled her eyes. While Molly got her 'oracle sense' from her mom, she got her looks and style from her dad. Nico and Molly were practically identical except Molly had Rachel's skin tone and she had these awesome electric blue highlights in her hair.

"I see."

"The worst is gonna come from an unexpected place." She fiddled with her jacket "And the best will come from an unexpected place."

"Cryptic much?" I turn to look at her.

She put her hands up "I'm telling you all I know."

"Great." I huff. I was going to be screwed and then saved in high school? Fun.


	2. Chapter 2

So today was the day. My first day of freshman year. All of the gang would be going to Geode High School. Percy's stepdad was still the English teacher, even though he was like a million years old.

I got up at 5:30 so I could use the bathroom before Gabe did. I quick showered, washed my face, applied acne medicine and went back to my bedroom to blow dry my hair. Ten minutes later I was faced with the dilemma of what to wear. I picked out dark jeans, a red and white striped shirt with lace quarter length sleeves. It was pretty and a little girly for my style but hopefully Russell would notice. I brushed my hair through and hopped downstairs to quick eat a bowl of cereal. After brushing my teeth and grabbing my shoes I was ready to go. Unfortunately it was only 6:30 and the bus comes at 7:20.

I decided to see if anyone was done getting ready and wanted to hang out. My dad had made these gadgets that were kind of like cell phones but they didn't attract monsters because they were similar to Iris messages. It looked exactly like a cell phone and it could send a text message, phone calls or an Iris message.

I quick sent a text to Cassia, Lily, Hailey, Fiona, Russell, Greg, Matt, Molly, Aria, Kai, and Joe asking if anyone of them were done getting ready for school and wanted to hang until the bus came. My first response was from Aria '_I am still in middle school. I do not have school today. Go away Essie or I'll feed you to Mrs. O'Leary.' _I took that as a no. After 10 minutes, I found out Fiona, Matt, Joe and Molly were done. We decided to meet at the bus stop and just talk till the bus came.

"See ya dad." I found my dad in the kitchen and kissed him on the cheek.

"Where are you going?"

"To hang with Fiona, Joe, Molly and Matt before the bus comes." I point towards the door.

"Why don't you 'hang' here?" He sarcastically smiles.

"_Papi_!" I groan.

"Fine go have fun. Mom or I will make sure you get on the bus."

"Ok. Bye!"

"Wait. Do you have your clip?" He looks around my hair for it.

"Nah I wasn't going to bring it. Should I?" I was confused because I've never brought a magical weapon to school.

"Bring that and the dagger bracelet."

"Ok?" I run upstairs and put them both on. "K now I'm leaving!"

"_Adios te quiero."_

_"Y tu papa."_

I walk out the door and almost run into Fiona. Fiona is the sweetest girl ever. She has brown hair that she keeps in a pixie cut and hazel eyes. She's built like a dancer (like I am) but is a good two inches shorter. She's in jeans and striped ballet flats and her green blouse is flowy and accentuates how skinny she is.

"Hey cuz, short for cousin." I smile and laugh at her use of our inside joke, and put my arm around her shoulder.

"Hey cuz." She puts her arm around me too.

Since Fiona was the daughter of Wendy, and Wendy was my mom's sister, we were kind of cousins. Kind of. We both chose to live in the Muse cabin and we helped each other with dance stuff.

"You going to dance class tonight?" Fiona asks.

"No. My mom won't let me because I've been fighting with Gabe too much."

"Ugh mothers." She rolls her eyes.

"Tell me about it."

We arrive at the corner the bus picks us up at and see Molly with earphones in, her eyes are closed and she's tapping a beat out on her knee. She's sitting on the little half wall Chiron put in so we would have somewhere to sit.

"Whatcha listening to Molls?" Matt Rodriguez walks up and pulls one of her earphones out.

"Radioactive, Imagine Dragons. And I'd like to listen to it without interruption." She glares.

"Gosh, if you didn't want social interaction why did you come?" He feigns hurt.

"Shut up."

Joe comes up behind her "Wait Molly you're listening to Radioactive?"

"Yeah?"

"WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE! TO THE NEW AGE! I'M RADIOACTIVE!" He sings way off key.

"Stoll, you shame this great song." She sighs and pulls both earphones off and throws them into her navy backpack. She's wearing her usual; black skinny jeans, hot pink converse high tops, white t shirt and leather jacket. We joke that she dresses like a classical bad a$$. But she doesn't appreciate that.

Fiona suddenly looks concerned "A mortal bus is picking us up? How is it gonna get through the boarders…?"

"It's a mini bus. Driven by Argus. He picks us up, drives us to school and then comes to get us later on." I answer. Fiona was driven by her mom all of 4-8th grade so she doesn't remember the bus.

"Is anyone else armed to the teeth?" Matt asks and opens his jacket, revealing his pen that turns into a sword.

"I am." We all answer at the same time and begin laughing at our paranoid parents.

"Hey." Kai walks up and punches Joe in the arm.

"I see the usual greeting hasn't changed?" He asks while rubbing his arm.

"Never has, never will."

We wait around for 45 minutes and then Argus came with the bus. By then Hailey, Russell, Gabe, Cassia, Lily and Greg had come to the corner. I sat with Cassia near the front and we talked about how weird it will be starting high school.

The ten of us walked in the building and a weird guy in a hoodie ran up to Cassia, Lily and I.

"Can you blow my whistle baby?! Whistle baby let me know!" He began singing to us while his friends crack up.

"Bye now." I glare and walk away from the creep.

"Oh look it's the freaks and the clan has grown." A snobby girl laughs.

"Morning Lisa." Kai fakely smiles. "So nice to see your new nose. So much nicer than the other." Lisa's face gets red and she looks pissed.

At once 9 demigods go "OOOO! BURN!" and pat Kai on the back.

"At least I can afford clothes." She snickers pointing at Kai's old Blink 182 shirt.

"That's great for you Lisa." She rolls her eyes and we all walk away.

"What was that all about Kai?" Fiona asks.

"Ahh the regular. Most the student body can't stand us." Kai rolls her eyes.

"Why?"

"Cuz we're so sexy." Gabe answers.

"I think it's cuz we all have ADHD, dyslexia, we get in trouble, and they think we're the product of incest." Kai answers.

"EW!" I squeal.

"What?" Gabe looks over.

"Technically…" I trail off.

"Shut up Es." Greg covers his ears.

We all disperse to our homerooms, and since homerooms are determined alphabetically, I'm in the last homeroom. Fortunately Joe, Cassia and Lily are also in my homeroom, but we sit on complete opposite sides of the room.

Our teacher decides to 'break the ice' and makes us all come up and introduce ourselves and say something interesting about ourselves.

"Hi I'm Cassia Stoll. Lily's my twin and Joe's my cousin. I'm 14 and I want to be a horticulturist." She smiles and I suppress a laugh.

"Hi I'm Lily Stoll. Cassia's my twin and Joe's my cousin. I'm 14 and I also want to be a horticulturist. I'm 10 minutes older than Cassia." She smiles.

"I'm Joe. You know the family relations by now. I'm also 14 but I don't want to be a horticulturist." Some people laugh and he sits down quickly.

Soon it's my turn. "Hi I'm Esperanza but everyone calls me Essie. I want to be a dancer." Everyone laughs "What?" I ask, confused why my aspiration humors them.

"What kind of dancer?" one of the loud obnoxious guys laughs.

"A ballerina for the New York City Ballet Company." I glare, that shuts him up.

"Oh that's interesting!" The teacher, who I know now is Mrs. Lauret, says. "Will you dance for us?"

"Um sure. Can we just push the podium and a few desks back?"

Once I'm sure I have enough room, I do a few dance steps. Just a simple turn, an aerial cartwheel and a straight leg scorpion.

"Yeah… That's it."

Everyone was kind of staring so I quickly went back to my seat.

"Good going Essie." Cassia winks as we go to 1st period.

"Ugh shut up! What was I supposed to say?"

"You're supposed to say 'No' to drugs Essie!" Gabe shouts as he walks by us in the hallway.

"SHUT UP GABE!" I yell back.

**A/N: Crappy ending I know... Next chapter is the rest of the school day & then some interesting stuff! :O**


	3. Chapter 3

First class of the day was Concept Physics, taught by a VERY elderly, VERY Polish woman.

"This year you vill be doing many laps." She says as she paces the room.

A girl raises her hand. "Yes you? Vhat is your name?" The teacher asks.

"Victoria Kennedy." The girl says in a very pretentious voice "Where will we be doing the laps?"

"In the laproom."

"Why are we running in Physics?"

"No running! LAPS! LAPS!" She yells.

The girls face turns red "Then how will we do the laps if we can't run?"

"THEY ARE SCIENTIFIC LAPS!" The teacher yells and pulls at her hair.

"She means labs!" I finally understand.

"Ohhh!" The entire class nods in understanding.

The teacher gives us a creepy look of 'see I told you so.'

Second period is World History. Thankfully our teacher is cool and lets us pick our seats. They are arranged in little pods of four so I sit with Cassie, Russell, and a whore who sat with us because of Russell.

"Ok class we have 5 minutes left. Feel free to talk, just keep it low." Mr. Matts, our teacher, begs.

"So… I'm Marinna." The girl smiles and runs her fingers up Russell's arm.

"Really? Cool." He nods and turns to talk to us. "Did you hear about Kai's little encounter with some guy named James?" Russell snorts; something he's done since he was a toddler.

"Yeah I heard!" I chuckle. Last period, before the end of class James made a move on Kai. She had him in a headlock before he knew it.

"Ew you know Kai Jackson? She's such a loser! And that Hailey? She's so hideous! Their friend Gabe would be so hot if he weren't so abnormal!" Marianna giggles and twirls her hair around her finger.

"EW! Didn't need to hear that you think my brother's hot!" I cover my ears.

"Or that my sister is hideous." Russell glares at her.

"OMG! Hailey is your sister?" Marianna picks up her books and moves.

"NO CULTURAL DIFFUSION!" Mr. Matts yells.

"What?" Marianna looks confused.

"Think of that little pod as your country. We don't want you moving with other pods because that's cultural diffusion."

"Ummm…" She looks around "Kay?"

"No Mr. Matts it's totally cool if she leaves." Cassia smiles.

"Our country will benefit from her banishment." Russell agrees.

"Can we banish her?" I ask.

"Well if banishment is the case here, then Marianna Hewett, consider thouself banished from the Colony of Massachusetts!" Mr. Matts announces in a pretentious colonial voice.

The entire class cracks up except Marianna.

"We aren't in Massachusetts. That's in Canada." Marianna nods.

"No it's not. Alberta is in Canada." Russell chimes in.

"So is Quebec." I respond.

"Ontario." Cassia hops right in.

"Nova Scotia.

"New Foundland and Labrador."

"The Yukon Territory."

"British Columbia!"

"SASKATCHEWAN!" We all say and burst out laughing.

"Whaat?" Marianna asks. Thankfully the bell rings and we file out of the room, my friends and I in fits of laughter.

"That was awesome." I wipe a tear from my eye.

We flew through PE, Spanish, Lunch and then came the dreaded Algebra.

"Now! Students, this class is a center of learning and knowledge. So I expect you to take this class seriously. Understood?" Our teacher, Mr. Wright, looked like a big scary guy. He was 5.9' and had huge arms and legs. His face was clean shaven and his eyes were dark and scary.

"Cassia Stoll, Esperanza Valdez, Russell Grace, Molly Di Angelo." He bellowed. The four of us nodded from our seats. We had been seated alphabetically and we all ended up in the back of the room. "Front and center." He pushed everyone back a seat so the four of us could sit right up front. The order was Molly on the right, Russell, Cassia and then myself.

"Sir? Why is this necessary?" Cassia asked.

"Because on my attendance sheet here it says you kids have ADHD _and _dyslexia. I need to watch out for kids like you." He smiled sickly and the class snickered.

Molly shot us a look with _'Monster?' _written all over it. We all nodded

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" He bellowed. "DO WE HAVE SOME SECRET LANGUAGE HERE?!"

"No." I gulped.

"NO SIR!" Mr. Wright yelled.

"NO SIR!" I responded.

"THAT'S MORE LIKE IT! Now students time to learn quadratics. Di Angelo! Teach this lesson."

Molly looked bored as usual "I don't know the material."

"LEARN IT WHILE YOU TEACH!"

For the next half hour we learned Molly attempt to teach quadratics.

"And then you put this number here. Yeah. Quadratics. Love 'em." She emotionlessly read from the text.

"IS THAT SASS?"

"Um no?" She holds the whiteboard marker in her hand.

"SATURDAY DETENTION!"

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" She throws the marker down.

"YOU SASSED ME!"

I could see Molly's eyes darken and I suddenly got scared. "Mols, sit down."

She glares at him.

"VALDEZ SATURDAY DENTION FOR YOU TOO!" I groan.

"Sir?" Cassia asks.

"Yes?"

"You're a fat, bitter old man who was unloved as a child and takes it out on his students."

"DETENTION!"

"Now Mr. Grace, any smart comments?"

Russell looks down "No sir."

"Good." Mr. Wright smiled. "Now will you write the formula for quadratics on the board?"

"Sure." He goes up to the board and writes _Kiss my A-_ the marker was snatched from him before he could finish his message.

"ALL 4 OF YOU! DETENTION!" He bellowed. Talk about saved by the bell, we all quickly grabbed our books and ran.

"Thanks guys but you didn't need to do that." Molly groans.

"Yes we did! We get to hang all Saturday!" Cassia grins and ropes her arm through Molly's.

English was our last class. Our teacher, Mrs. Jung, speaks so softly we can't hear her. I doodled the entire class.

At last bell we all ran to our lockers, threw our books in our backpacks and ran as fast as we could to the bus.

"Essie I heard you got Saturday detention." Gabe laughs.

"Yeah."

"Mom's gonna kill you."

"I know."

"_ESPERANZA CARMEN VALDEZ! _GET DOWN HERE NOW!" My mother shouts when she gets home from work.

"Si?"

"WHAT IS THIS ABOUT SATURDAY DETENTION?!"

"Oh a teacher was totally unfair and he gave Molly, Cassia, Russell and I detention for no reason! I think he's a monster."

"A MONSTER?! AND YOU WENT AND GOT DETENTION FROM HIM?!" She shouts.

"Mom it's no big deal!"

"THIS IS A BIG DEAL!"

"What's with all the yelling?" Dad asks when he walks though the door.

"Your daughter got a Saturday Detention for sassing a teacher who could be a monster."

"Notice whenever the kids are in trouble they're _my _kids." Dad rolls his eyes.

"Don't get me started Leo! I never did this! They got this from your side!"

"_MY _side?!" He looks angry.

"YES!"

"WHAT? YOU WERE A TROUBLE MAKER! SO WAS YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY!"

"EXCUSE ME?!"

"YEAH! YOU HEARD ME!"

"THAT'S IT! NO MORE!" Mom yells.

"No, baby don't be like that! Come on _Lucita_." Dad begs, his mood instantly softening.

"Don't think you can _Lucita _your way out of this."

"Dang mom what did you take away- EW GROSS!" Gabe asks and then looks disgusted.

"What?" Dad looks up.

"I know what you're talking about!"

Realization hits me "EWW! MOM!" I cover my ears. "_LA LA LA! I'm not hearing this!"_

"You're grounded." She points to me. "You go work on homework, I know about that D in English last year." She points to Gabe. "And you! Nothing." She points to my dad and goes back to cooking dinner.

My family is weird.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry for not updating! I was on vacation, got really sick, then got caught up in the holidays and such and then to top it off… my laptop deleted this chapter TWICE! Woo!**

**Gabe POV **(In the whiteboard conversation Hailey is _italics _and Gabe is **bold**)

I was screwed. Like screwed in the sense that my life was completely and utterly over. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First off, it wasn't even _that _bad, my parents were just overreacting.

It was a Thursday and I was doing homework after being grounded for life. I heard a tap on my window and opened my blinds. I saw Hailey standing in front of her open window with a handful of small colored rocks from a fish tank she had when she was 6. Now if any of you have seen Taylor Swift's music video for 'You Belong With Me' (I totally haven't it's just a reference Hailey uses…) then you'll know what Hailey and I's windows look like. For those of you who haven't seen the video, picture two houses very close to each other. Now picture two large windows facing each other, so that you can see into the other person's bedroom. I AM NOT A PERVERT! The worst I've seen Hailey do in her room was get yelled at by her parents. We both keep our blinds closed anyway.

Hailey closed her window and pulled out a mini whiteboard and a hot pink marker. I pulled out the exact same thing except my marker was black. These whiteboards had been Hailey's idea for those occasions when we were grounded for life.

_This sucks _

**You got that right. Our parents overreacted. **

_Gabe, they caught us passed out drunk on the floor of the Jackson's living room…_

**True but being grounded for 3 weeks?! I know for a fact my dad drank when he was my age. I bet my mom did too.**

_Ok your mom drinking underage? Highly unlikely._

**You have a point… but seriously? It wasn't that bad!**

_We almost died_

**What?!**

_We drank whiskey Gabe. A LOT of it. We could have had alcohol poisoning._

**Oh…**

_Yeah._

**My mom's main problem was that I could have knocked one of you up…**

_Your mom thought you would get me or Kai pregnant?!_

**Yeah. She said alcohol makes people do weird things.**

_That I am aware of. I have seen my dad drunk with your dad._

**Lol that was funny!**

_Back to the topic…?_

**Oh yeah sorry. CRAP! I gotta run my mom's coming.**

I threw the whiteboard and marker in my desk and shut my curtains.

"Gabe?" My mom cautiously knocked on my door.

"_Entrar."_

_"Gracias nino." _My mom looked upset and her eyes were red and puffy. Had she been crying? "Gabe, I know you're mad at us but…"

"You got that right."

"I am your mother you will speak to me respectfully." My mom shot me a glare I had seen far too many times, due to the fact that I spent a lot of time with female demigods.

"Sorry _mami._" I looked away.

"Now Gabe. Your father and I are disappointed in your decision but we've decided you can still come to Essie's recital."

"Woop-de-doo." I sarcastically mumbled.

"You know that everyone is going to be there."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. You made plans to go watch the recital months ago and we all decided it was ok for you three to go."

"Sweet!" I fist pumped and was about to jump up.

"But! You're still grounded for another 2 weeks and 4 days and you have to clean your room before you go."

"Fine! Thanks mom!"

**Essie's POV**

My Saturday detention went fine by the way. Mr. Wright wasn't there to eat us and we just sat looking at the wall for a few hours.

Tonight was my recital. It was so major and I was freaking out. Recruiters from the NY Ballet Company, Julliard and other prestigious dance schools and companies were there.

That night I would be doing a duet with Fiona from Swan Lake. We were doing that 'Black Swan' part. I was the aggressive, evil black swan and she was the innocent, pure white swan. I would also be doing a contemporary dance to 'My Heart Will Go On'.

Right before I went on my mom came backstage. Recently, she had gone back to choreographing for Broadway and it showed. She had bags under her eyes from long nights of planning out dances and envisioning steps and crying about Gabe being such an idiot.

"Good luck Essie." She kissed my forehead. "I'm so proud of you."

"_Gracias Mama." _I hugged her and I was tapped on the shoulder.

"Is there room for one more?" My dad chuckles.

"_Papi! _I thought you couldn't make it?"

"I moved some things around."

"Thank you!" I kissed him on the cheek.

"We gotta go Essie, it's time for us to take our seats. Good luck sweetheart." My dad hugged me and my parents left.

"Hey Essie." I turned and saw Russell.

"Russell!" I gave him a big hug.

"Good luck, you'll be great." He smiled down at me.

"I hope so."

"I gotta go take my seat. You look beautiful by the way."

I looked down at my black spaghetti strapped top that was cut off right below my ribcage. There were a few sequins at the top. I wore a black tutu and my pointe shoes. My heart got all fluttery and I blushed. It looked like Russell was leaning towards me, what for I had no idea. His eyes were closed and he had one hand on my face. I realized he was probably going to kiss me. Right as my brain went crazy imagining Russell kissing me everything went batsh*t.

Mr. Wright was suddenly behind me.

"Hello Esperanza. Russell." No. .

"Mr. Wright." I sheepishly shifted from one foot to the next. My brain was telling me to run.

"I gotta run." I smiled, about to run to the dressing room where my bow and arrow clip was.

"Oh no Esperanza I'm afraid I can't let you leave." There was a loud roar and he turned into a freaking _Manticore. _Wonderful. What makes it better? I didn't have any weapons with me so I was virtually useless.

"Crap Es, you got any weapons." Russell looked scared.

"No, my bow and arrows are in the dressing room." I paled.

"I got my sword. Stay back and try to sneak and grab it."

"Uhh Mr. Wright is kinda blocking the door." I whispered.

"We're screwed."

"Totally."

"Can you get my phone out of my pocket and call Hailey? Be very discreet."

Mr. Wright roared "No talking puny half-bloods! Where are the rest of your weakling kind?"

I slowly slid my hand into Russell's back pocket (his butt is really nice by the way) and took the monster proof phone out. I had to look down to find the keypad and punch in Hailey's number. I was right behind Russell though so Mr. Wright didn't see me.

The phone rang many times. No answer. _CRAP! _I remembered. Hailey got her phone taken away. So did Gabe. And Kai. I tried calling Molly but her phone was off. Great.

"Russell, it's not working." I whisper.

"Ok then on the count of three run and scream. I'll hold him up."

"Ok."

"One." He whispered.

"STOP TALKING!" Mr. Wright roared.

"Two…"

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!"

"THREE!" I sprinted from behind Russell and ran. I made it about ten feet when I heard a hiss and everything went black.


End file.
